Monday, April 2, 2012

My 11-year-old niece, Phoenix, and I performed as the opening act for a collaborative production by Romanteek and the Tall House Arts Consortium, called "All of the Shadows Open" - an astounding evening of live music, daring acrobatics, and eloquent movement...

Our opening piece, called "Picnic at Souls Crossing," involved movement, sound, and video.
As we engaged the audience by walking up and down the theater aisles and through the lobby, music and image framed the narrative - a video played on the theater screen which served as a backdrop and an extension of the space, portraying a forest path along which the audience could travel with us.

As the video transitioned from a moving path to a still clearing, Phoenix and I met in the middle of the stage. We exchanged gifts, a red apple for each of us, took our bites, fell under a spell, and transformed, leaving the stage as a fox and a rabbit...

Last year, I was awarded an opportunity to create another bench for the Downtown Olympia Bench Project, which was unveiled (installed) during the Fall Arts Walk in October (2011)!

Photo by Bridget Irish

This second bench, was painted by hand, in small squares of several different shades of greens with a splash of glittery silver here and there. It's located at the corner of Legion and Capitol Way, outside of the Starbucks across from Sylvester Park.

Photo by Bridget Irish

The first bench I created for the Downtown Olympia Bench Project is called "Match Game" and is located further down Capitol Way, just outside of the Bread Peddler.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

I'll have a new painting, "A Song of Summer for My Sister" (2011, acrylic/latex house paint on canvas, 30x40 inches), hanging in the "Summer in Olympia"-themed group art show at the Northern - http://www.northernolympia.org/ - July-August 2011.

This show is formally titled: "Hey Folks We Made It... and Now It's Over" because, sadly, the Northern is closing and this will be its final art show.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

I am finally having some of my photos made into postcards! It's very exciting and I look forward to unveiling them at the Artists' Garage Sale this Saturday, May 21st (at the Armory on Legion in downtown Olympia).

The event runs from 10am to 3pm and is sponsored by POSSCA, a fantastic Olympia-based non-profit that makes it possible for youth to participate in K-12 arts programs: http://www.possca.org/

In addition to this inaugural selection of 5 different photo-based postcards (please see below), I will also have a selection of hand-drawn one-of-a-kind postcards available for purchase.

ALSO - I'll be sharing my booth with the amazing Sarah Adams - community events organizer extraordinaire, seamstress, and fellow artist. She'll be offering handmade clothing, sewing equipment, and other gems from her studio and home.

AND Sarah Utter will also have a booth, representin' Olympia's Community Print, and may have some of her own gorgeous work for sale as well...

about the artist...

Hi! My name is Bridget Irish - I'm an artist who lives and works in the Pacific Northwest. In addition to making short films and videos, my art practice includes photography, performance, installation, visual art, music, writing, and creative gardening.

Some of my current projects include photo postcards, creating "experimental films" through knitting and needle-felting on fabric, and building on a series of short videos I refer to as "photo-mations." Most of the videos in this body of work are composed of over a thousand photographs each, shot manually, edited in-camera, and feature an animated panoramic portrait of a city or landscape.

My most recent public art piece is a photo-mural covered city bench in downtown Olympia called "Match Game." The mural consists of 28 different pairs of photos featuring a variety of local sites and subjects, mixed up in the mural so one can match the pairs.

I have screened, performed and lectured at various venues and universities across the nation, such as 911 Media Arts, On the Boards, San Francisco Art Institute, Sarah Lawrence College, San Francisco Cinematheque, UCLA, Tacoma Art Museum, Reed College, Artist's Television Access, William & Mary, Women Make Movies, Tollbooth Gallery, UC San Diego, The Art Institute of Chicago, Saint Martin's University, and have screened internationally in Guyana, Paris, and Australia.

I have curated and juried film and video programs for Ladyfest 2000 (Olympia), Progression Project One Conference (Boise State University), Homo A Go Go, CoCA Seattle, the Olympia Film Festival's CINE-X Series, Shot to the Face, and The Evergreen State College Gallery. I have taught in the areas of new media studies and video and film production at the San Francisco Art Institute, UC Berkeley, The Olympia Film Society, The Evergreen State College, and Seattle University.